Harvard Foundation Hosts Second Consecutive Veterans Day Ceremony

The Harvard Foundation hosted a Veterans Day ceremony on Wednesday where affiliates recalled their military service and lauded the historic partnership between the military and academic institutions.

The ceremony, held in Memorial Church, included remarks from Kirkland House Faculty Dean Downing Lu, a retired U.S. Army physician; Eric Goralnick, the Massachusetts veterans secretary; and Shoshana S. Chatfield, a retired U.S. Navy vice admiral. It doubled as a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Navy ROTC at Harvard.

It is the second consecutive year that the Harvard Foundation has hosted an official Veterans Day ceremony after the College drew criticism in 2024 for holding classes on the federal holiday and not hosting programming to honor those who served.

The Harvard Foundation absorbed programs for veterans and members of the military when it opened last summer as a consolidated hub for diversity programming at the College. Craig Rodgers, who manages the College’s military student services, kept his role after the merger.

“Today, we pause to recognize the veterans among us, to thank those who continue to serve, and to reflect on the responsibilities and sacrifices that military service casts,” Habiba T. Braimah, the senior director of the Harvard Foundation, said in an opening address.

Lu stressed the contributions of higher education to the military in her remarks, saying her time as a master’s student at the Harvard School of Public Health informed how she treated patients in the field.

Lu said she applied techniques pioneered at Boston hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School to improve the survival and rehabilitation rate of wounded service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lu also said she relied on her HSPH training to help guide the military’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I brought back what I learned here, as many uniformed physicians did before me and continue to do after me,” Lu said. “And military patients benefited immensely from this partnership with academia.”

Lu’s remarks come after the U.S. Department of Defense moved to suspend academic ties with Harvard in February, saying the University was “no longer a welcoming institution” to military personnel. The move ended graduate-level professional military education, fellowship, and certificate programs effective this fall.

The Defense Department has since turned to other institutions, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Virginia Tech, for fellowship programs.

Lu also linked academic research to federal funding — another source of tension between Harvard and the Trump administration, which froze nearly $2.7 billion in grants to the University last spring. That money has since been restored.

“Much of that knowledge rests on research funded by federal grants, and this is how universities support the military and how the military supports society,” Lu said. “That relationship is alive in this room tonight.”

Goralnick, the Massachusetts veterans secretary, listed a series of state initiatives intended to support veterans, including a program launched yesterday that recruits military medics into hospitals to bridge the transition to civilian healthcare careers.

Goralnick also said his office was providing roughly 50 studio units for homeless veterans — a more permanent support than what he said he could previously offer as a physician.

“When they came to the emergency department, we, of course, take care of them if they have a medical issue, buy them a needle, pat them on the back, and send them on their way,” Goralnick said. “But as a public servant in a state government role, now we have the opportunity to change lives.”

Cory A. Garbe ’30, an attendee who served in the army for 24 years before coming to Harvard, said veterans were a small but expanding presence on campus and credited the College with helping make them visible.

“It almost seems like they go out of their way really to recognize veterans,” Garbe said.